JSA All-Stars (2003 Series) #8

December 2, 2003

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: And Justice For All

The younger members of the Justice Society, having faced their inner demons, reunite to combat the demon named Legacy.

Writer: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Sal Velluto
Inks: Bob Almond
Colors: John Kalisz
Letters: Ken Lopez
Editor: Peter Tomasi
Cover Art: John Cassaday, Mark Lewis & David Baron
Publisher: DC Comics

I think the format of this miniseries hurt this conclusion more than anything else. In the first issue Legacy kidnapped the older members of the JSA and the Spectre sent the remaining members on a quest to settle with the demons in their own lives. We then got six very good single-issue stories about these younger members, along with six spectacular back-up stories about their golden age counterparts.

During these six issues, the framing plot with Legacy was almost never mentioned, and it was easy to forget why the heroes were going on these quests. Almost any of these stories would have worked just as well as a fill-in issue of JSA or a back-up story in that title without any editing, and by the time we got back to the main story in this conclusion, we get jarred a bit to remember that this is a story that has taken place over eight months for us, but one day for the JSA. Sand is even still around (having been taken out of commission in JSA #50, which was a far more recent release than JSA All-Stars #1).

The battle with Legacy is a fairly standard one, although fine for what it is. It’s just not as spectacular as I’d hoped, or especially as I’ve come to expect from a writer as good as Johns. It’s interesting to note that the original co-writer for this series, David Goyer, didn’t stick around for this last issue.

The middle six issues of this miniseries were all brilliant. I have to admit, though, I kind of wish DC had just published those six solo stories as a mini of their own or as a series of one-shots, because they would have worked much better that way.

Rating: 6/10